Comparison Lenovo V110 15 [V110-15IKB 80TH001FRK] vs Asus VivoBook Max X541UA [X541UA-GQ1244D]

The maximum brightness that a laptop screen can provide.

The brighter the ambient light, the brighter the laptop screen should be, otherwise the image on it may be difficult to read. And vice versa: in dim ambient light, high brightness is unnecessary — it greatly burdens the eyes (however, in this case, modern laptops provide brightness control). Thus, the higher this indicator, the more versatile the screen is, the wider the range of conditions in which it can be effectively used. The downside of these benefits is an increase in price and energy consumption.

As for specific values, many modern laptops have a brightness of 250 – 300 cd / m2 and even lower. This is quite enough for working under artificial lighting of medium intensity, but in bright natural light, visibility may already be a problem. For use in sunny weather (especially outdoors), it is desirable to have a brightness margin of at least 300 – 350 cd / m2. And in the most advanced models, this parameter can be 350 – 400 cd / m2 and even more.

Each series combines chips that are similar in general level, purpose, and often also in individual specific features. Moreover, most series include processors of several generations at once, which can differ significantly in actual characteristics. It is worth noting that until recently laptops were equipped almost exclusively with processors from AMD or Intel - until in 2020 Apple introduced its own chip Apple M1 (with updated versions Apple M1 Pro and Apple M1 Max), Apple M2 (2022) with powerful chips M2 Pro, M2 Max and Apple M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max (2023). At the moment, the following series are mainly relevant in laptops:

— AMD Ryzen 3. The most inexpensive series of AMD chips in the Ryzen family (Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9) using the Zen microarchitecture. In terms of the general design, Ryzen 3 is similar to its older brothers, but half of the computing cores are deactivated. However, it is quite advanced and is found even in ultrabooks.
...> — Ryzen 5. The second series based on Zen architecture is a more affordable alternative to Ryzen 7 chips. Ryzen 5 chips have somewhat more limited performance characteristics (in particular, a lower clock frequency and, in some models, L3 cache size). Otherwise, they are completely similar to the “sevens” and are also positioned as high-performance chips for gaming and workstations. See "Ryzen 7" below for more details.

- Ryzen 7. The first series of processors from AMD, built on the Zen microarchitecture. It was introduced in March 2017. In general, Ryzen chips (of all series) are promoted as high-end solutions for gamers, developers, graphic designers and video editors. One of the main differences between Zen and previous microarchitectures was the use of simultaneous multithreading, due to which the number of operations per clock was significantly increased at the same clock frequency. In addition, each core received its own floating-point calculation unit, the speed of the first level cache increased, and the L3 cache capacity in Ryzen 7 chips is 16 MB as standard.

— Atom. Processors specifically designed by Intel for mobile devices (including smartphones). They are mainly used in ultra-compact laptops.

— Core M. Processors designed for portable equipment (in particular, ultra-compact laptops) and characterized by extremely low heat generation, allowing the use of passive cooling systems. They were introduced in 2014 as the first serial chips based on the 14 nm process technology.

— Celeron. The most budget series in the modern line of desktop processors from Intel. However, the latest generations come with integrated graphics.

— Pentium. Budget desktop processors from Intel, slightly superior in performance to Celeron, but not up to the Core i3. Also carry integrated graphics.

— Processor. The entry-level processor line that precedes the Core i3 family in the modern Intel hierarchy. Such chipsets are found in entry-level laptops designed for everyday household or office use, as well as undemanding games.

- Core i3. A series of entry-level and mid-level processors, the most budget series in the Core ix family; however, it outperforms the Pentium and Celeron series.

— Core i5. A series of mid-range processors, both in general and in the Core ix family. The architecture is dual- or quad-core, they have a third-level cache, and many models are also equipped with a built-in graphics chip.

— Core i7. A series of productive processors; before the advent of i9 was the most advanced in the "Core i" family. Core i7 chips have at least 4 cores, large level 3 cache and integrated graphics.

— Core i9. Top-level processors released in 2017; the most powerful line of consumer-grade laptop processors at the time of its introduction, displacing Core i7 chips from this position. They have from 6 cores and a volume cache of level 3.

— Apple. A series of processors from Apple, which debuted in November 2020 along with the release of the next generations of MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. In the initial configurations, they are equipped with 8 cores - 4 productive and 4 economical; the latter, according to the creators, consume 10 times less energy than the former. This, combined with the 5 nm process technology, has made it possible to achieve very high energy efficiency and at the same time performance. It is also worth noting that the processors of this series are made according to the system-on-chip scheme: a single module combines a CPU, a graphics adapter, RAM (in the first models - 8 or 16 GB), an NVMe solid-state drive and some other components (in particularly Thunderbolt 4 controllers).

The specific model of the processor installed in the laptop, or rather, the processor index within its series (see above). Knowing the full name of the processor (series and model), you can find detailed information on it (up to practical reviews) and clarify its capabilities.

The clock speed of the processor installed in the laptop (for multi-core processors, the frequency of each individual core).

Theoretically, a higher clock speed has a positive effect on performance, as it allows the processor to perform more operations per unit of time. However, in fact, the capabilities of the CPU depend on a number of other characteristics — primarily on the series to which it belongs (see above). It even happens that of the two chips, the more performant in the overall result is the slower one. With this in mind, it makes sense to compare by clock frequency only processors of the same series, and ideally, also of the same generation; and the laptop as a whole should be judged by the complex characteristics of the system, as well as by the results of tests (see below).

The amount of cache memory level 3 (L3) provided in the laptop processor.

The cache is a processor's own buffer, which stores the most frequently used data from RAM during operation. This speeds up access to them and has a positive effect on system performance. The cache is divided into several levels; the larger the volume of each level, the more data can be stored in it for quick access and the higher the performance (ceteris paribus). Level 3 cache has the lowest performance and the largest volume — in laptop processors it can reach 16 MB.

The result shown by the laptop processor in 3DMark06.

This test is primarily focused on testing performance in games — in particular, the ability of the processor to process advanced graphics and artificial intelligence elements. Test scores are reported as scores; the higher this number, the higher the performance of the tested chip. Good 3DMark06 results are especially important for gaming laptops.

The result shown by the laptop processor in the Passmark CPU Mark test.

Passmark CPU Mark is a comprehensive test that is more detailed and reliable than the popular 3DMark06 (see above). It checks not only the gaming capabilities of the CPU, but also its performance in other modes, based on which it displays the overall score; this score can be used to fairly reliably evaluate the processor as a whole (the more points, the higher the performance).

The result shown by the laptop processor in the SuperPI 1M test.

The essence of this test is to calculate the number "pi" to the millionth decimal place. The time spent on this calculation is the final result. Accordingly, the more powerful the processor, the smaller the result will be (this SuperPI 1M is fundamentally different from many other tests).

The amount of random access memory (RAM or RAM) actually installed in the laptop.

The amount of RAM is one of the most important indicators characterizing the overall flow Rate of the system. The more RAM installed in a laptop, the better it will cope with “heavy” resource-intensive programs, and the more tasks can be performed on it simultaneously without “brakes” and failures.

Today , 4 GB of RAM is considered the minimum required. A capacity of 8 GB is usually enough for comfortable household use and simple games, 16 GB and 32 GB are enough for running resource-intensive applications and confidently launching modern games. And in advanced gaming and professional laptops there are also larger amounts of RAM - 64 GB or even more.

Note that many laptop models allow you to increase the available amount of RAM; For more details, see “Maximum installed volume”.